Panarion (Against Heresies) 1 part 7/82

And they say that she sat down upon the ark and set fire to it — a first time, a second time, and a third time.

Hence indeed the building of Noah's own ark stretched out over many years, because it had been repeatedly burned down by her.

For, they say, Noah was obedient to the ruler, but Noria revealed the powers above and Barbelo, who comes from the powers, who is opposed to the ruler, as are also the other powers, and she indicated that it is necessary to gather back what was plundered from the Mother above — through the ruler who made the world and the other gods, angels, and demons with him — from the power that resides in bodies, by means of the effluence of both males and females.

And, simply put, I am utterly loath to expose the whole blindness of their darkness.

Yet I shall be willing to go into detail, setting forth one by one the absurd teachings of their falsely-named knowledge.

But others of them, again variously chafing against one another, striking and being struck about in their perceptions, bring in a certain prophet Barkabbas, worthy of that very name.

For 'kabba' is interpreted as 'fornication' in the Syriac dialect, and as 'murder' in the Hebrew, and again it is interpreted as 'a fourth part of the measure';

such a thing is worthy of mockery and laughter—or rather, of indignation—among those who know this name according to their own languages.

And from this most marvelous prophet they bring us a shameful narrative, so that we might be persuaded to draw near to perishable bodies and fall from the hope from above, not being ashamed to recount, in these very words, the erotic poems of fornication belonging to Cypris all over again.

But others among them again introduce a fabricated, seductive composition, upon which composition they have imposed a name, calling it 'the Gospel of Perfection.'

And truly this is not a gospel, but rather a mourning of perfection.

For the whole perfection of death is contained in such a sowing of the devil.

And others are not ashamed to speak of 'the Gospel of Eve.'

For in her name, as though she had discovered the food of knowledge through the revelation of the serpent that spoke to her, they set forth a certain sowing.

And just as, with a man of unstable mind who is drunk and raving, the words are not consistent—some made in jest, others full of lamentation—so has the sowing of these deceivers become, in every manner, a sowing of wickedness.

They set out from foolish visions and testimonies in the gospel which they proclaim.

For they say as follows: 'I stood upon a high mountain, and I saw a tall man and another short one, and I heard, as it were, a voice of thunder, and I drew near to hear, and it spoke to me and said:'

'I am you, and you are I; and wherever you are, there I am; and I am sown in all things.'

'And wherever you wish, you gather me; and in gathering me, you gather yourself.'

O what a sowing of the devil!

From what source has it perverted the mind of humanity, and dragged it away, into foolish and incoherent things, from the word of truth? For there is scarcely any need for one who has understanding to make a refutation of these things from Scripture, or from examples, or from any other matter.

For to right reasoning, their theatrical fabrication of foolish talk, and the work of adulterers, is plainly evident and easily detected.

By introducing these things and the like, those associated with 'knowledge' who have joined themselves to the heresy of Nicolaus have fallen away from the truth—not only having perverted the mind of those persuaded by them, but also having enslaved their bodies and souls to fornication and promiscuous mixing;

defiling their very assembly itself with the shamefulness of promiscuous mixing, both eating and touching human flesh and impurities.

Of these things I will not dare to speak the whole, unless I should be compelled by the excess of the grief in my mind concerning the vain things done by them, being astonished at what a mass and depth of evils the devil, enemy of mankind, leads those who are persuaded by him, so as to defile the mind and heart and hands and mouths and bodies and souls of these who have been ensnared by him in so great a darkening.

But I fear lest, in revealing the whole of this great venom—like the face of some basilisk serpent—I might bring about rather the ruin of those who encounter it than their correction.

...them to eat, while the food is given privately to those who are defiled, and no one is able, on account of the defilement, even to eat bread together with them;

For this reason, considering them to be a people set apart, their fellow-inhabitants named them 'Coddians.'

But these same people are called in Egypt 'Stratiotici' and 'Phibionites,' as I have already said in part above;

but some call them 'Zacchaeans,' and others 'Barbelites.'

Nevertheless, I shall not be able to pass over it, but I am compelled to speak it out.

For since holy Moses also, filled from the Holy Spirit, writes that if anyone sees a murder and does not report it, such a person shall be accursed, I am not able to pass over this great murder and this great murderous work without disclosing what should be disclosed.

For by disclosing to the discerning this pitfall, as it were the well of destruction, I shall perhaps produce fear and shuddering, so that the discerning may not only flee from it, but also stone to death this crooked serpent and basilisk lying in the pit, so that no one might even dare to approach it.

And let these things, though few, which have already been said concerning them, stand as having been set forth in part.

I shall now pass into the house of the depth of their deadly narrative; for their evil teaching of pleasure is varied among them, in that, first of all, they hold their own wives in common.

And if a stranger belonging to their own doctrine should arrive, there is a sign among them, between men and women and women and men: in extending the hand, ostensibly for a greeting, to make a certain tickling touch beneath the palm, thereby indicating that the one who has arrived belongs to their religion.

From this point, then, having recognized one another, they turn immediately to feasting;

and they set forth abundant dishes of meat-eating and wine-drinking, even if they should be poor.

And after feasting on this, and, so to speak, having filled the veins of their own satiety, they turn to frenzied lust.

And the husband, withdrawing from his wife, says to his own wife, 'Arise, make the love-feast with the brother.'

And these wretched ones, having mingled with one another—and, as I am truly ashamed to say the shameful things done among them, since, according to the holy Apostle, even to speak of the things done among them is shameful—nevertheless I shall not be ashamed to say the things which they themselves are not ashamed to do, so that in every way I may work a shuddering horror in those who hear the shameful deeds dared by them: for after mingling in the passion of fornication, and beyond this, raising up their own blasphemy to heaven, both the woman and the man receive the emission from the male into their own hands, and they stand looking up to heaven, holding the impurity in their hands, and they pray, forsooth—those called Stratiotici and Gnostics—offering that very thing on their hands to the Father, the nature of all things, and they say, 'We offer to you this gift, the body of Christ.'

And thus they eat it, partaking of their own shamefulness, and they say, 'This is the body of Christ, and this is the Passover, on account of which our bodies suffer and are compelled to confess the passion of Christ.'

Likewise also with what comes from the woman: whenever it happens that she is in her flow of blood, they likewise take the menstrual blood of impurity gathered from her, and eat it together.

And this, they say, is the blood of Christ.

Wherefore also, reading in their apocryphal books, 'I saw a tree bearing twelve fruits of the year, and it said to me, this is the tree of life,' they allegorize this to the monthly flow that occurs in women.

But while mingling with one another, they forbid procreation,

thereby mocking the creature that has been formed by God.

but they accomplish only the pleasure, and take back into themselves the seeds of their own impurity, not depositing them for the procreation of children, but themselves eating the thing of shamefulness.

But if any of them should be forestalled in sowing the deposit of their natural emission, and the woman should conceive, hear what more terrible thing such people dare to do.

For having drawn out the embryo at whatever time they should attempt it, they take this aborted infant and pound it in a mortar with a pestle, and mixing in honey and pepper and certain other spices and perfumed ointments, so that they might not feel nausea, thus all the votaries of these swine and dogs, having assembled together, partake, each one with his finger, from the child that has been pounded up.

And having thus accomplished the cannibalism, they then pray to God, saying, 'We were not mocked by the ruler of desire, but we have gathered up the transgression of our brother.'

And this, forsooth, they consider to be the perfect Passover.

And there are other terrible things which have been dared by them.

For whenever they again become frenzied among themselves, having smeared their hands with the shamefulness of their own emission, they rise up, and holding their hands thus defiled, they pray naked in their whole body, as though through such an act they were finding boldness before God.

And they pamper their bodies both night and day—wretched little women and wretched little men—anointing themselves with perfume, bathing, feasting, and devoting their leisure to beds and drunkenness.

And they curse the one who fasts, saying, 'One ought not to fast;'

for fasting belongs to this ruler who made the world.

but one must be nourished so that the bodies may be strong, in order to be able to render the fruit in its due season.

They make use of both the Old and New Testament, but they reject the one who spoke in the Old Testament.

And whenever they find some saying that could have a sense against them, they say that this has been spoken by the worldly spirit;

but if some saying could be shaped into a likeness of their own desire—not as the saying actually is, but as their deceived mind takes it—they, refashioning it to their own desire, declare that it has been spoken from the Spirit of truth.

And this, he says, is what the Lord said concerning John: 'What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?'—because, he says, John was not perfect;

for he was breathed upon by many spirits, like the reed that is moved by every wind.

And whenever the spirit of the ruler came upon him, he preached Judaism;

but whenever the Holy Spirit came, he spoke concerning Christ.

And this, he says, is [the meaning of] 'he who is least in the kingdom,' and so forth.

He spoke concerning us, he says, that the least among us is greater than he.

And immediately such people are silenced by the truth itself.

For from the words joined to each expression, the truth will be shown openly, and the guarantee of the phrase will be rendered.

For if John had been clothed in soft garments and had been in the houses of kings, the saying would rightly apply to him and would stand straight as a reproof of him;

but if he says, 'What did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments?'—and this was not in fact the case—then the accusation of this saying must no longer be brought against John who did not wear soft garments, but the reference is to those who supposed they would find John so attired, and who were often flattered hypocritically by those within the houses of kings.

For these people, going out, supposed that they would find, even from John, praises and blessings for the transgressions they committed every day.

But since they did not find this, it was said by the Savior to them, by way of refutation: 'What did you suppose you would find? A man accommodating himself to your passions, like those who wear soft garments? Not so;'

'John is a reed shaken by the opinions of men, like a reed stirred by every authority of the winds.' And since he said, 'Among those born of women there is none greater than John,' lest some should suppose that John was greater even than the Savior himself—since he too was born of a woman, Mary the ever-virgin, through the Holy Spirit—guarding us against this, he said that 'the one who is lesser than he,' that is, in the time of his incarnate coming, 'is greater than he in the kingdom of heaven.'

For since the Savior was born six months after the birth of John, it is clear that, being greater than he—

to whom is this not clear? Therefore, indeed, everything among them has been composed in vain, having been changed from good things into base ones.

And their books are indeed many.

For they set forth certain so-called 'Questions of Mary,' while others put forward many books in the name of the aforesaid Ialdabaoth, and likewise in the name of Seth.

They speak also of other 'Apocalypses of Adam,' and they have dared to compose other gospels in the name of the disciples; and they are not ashamed to say that our very Savior and Lord Jesus Christ himself revealed this shameful practice.

For in the so-called 'Great Questions of Mary' — for they also have fabricated 'small' ones — they allege that he revealed this to her, taking her up onto the mountain, and after praying, drawing forth a woman from his own side, and beginning to have intercourse with her; and that thus, forsooth, by partaking of his own effluence he showed that this is what must be done, that we may live. And how, when Mary was troubled and fell to the ground, he raised her up again and said to her, 'Why did you doubt, O you of little faith?' And they say that this is what is meant in the Gospel: 'If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?' And the saying, 'When you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before' — that is, the effluence being taken back to whence it came; and the saying, 'Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood,' with the disciples being troubled and saying, 'Who can listen to this?' — they say that this word was spoken concerning that shameful act.

Therefore they were troubled and drew back and went away.

For, he says, they had not yet been made firm in the Pleroma.

'By the outgoings of the waters,' and 'which shall yield its fruit' — this, he says, refers to the effluence of pleasure.

And 'its leaf shall not fall' — because, he says, we do not let it fall to the ground, but we ourselves eat it.

And lest, by bringing forward their testimonies in public, I should do more harm than good, for this reason I shall pass over most of them, since if I set out here everything wickedly said among them, I would in effect be proclaiming it publicly.

For to say, he claims, that Rahab set a scarlet cord in the window — this, he says, was not a scarlet cord, but refers to the parts of the female nature and to the scarlet blood of the menses; and the saying, 'Drink waters from your own vessels,' speaks of the very same thing.

They say that the flesh perishes and is not raised, and that it belongs to the ruler (archon).

But the power that is in the menses and in the seed, they say, is the soul, which we gather up and eat.

And whatever we eat — meat or vegetables or bread or anything else — we do a favor to the created things, gathering the soul out of them all and carrying it with us up to the heavenly realms.

For this reason they also partake of every kind of meat, saying, 'that we may show mercy to our own kind.'

They assert that it is one and the same soul that has been sown into animals and beasts and fish and serpents and human beings, and also into vegetables and trees and crops.

And those of them called Phibionites offer up their shameful sacrifices of fornication, which we have already described above, invoking three hundred sixty-five names which they themselves have fabricated as supposedly belonging to archons, mocking the foolish women and saying:

'Have intercourse with me, that I may offer you up to the archon.'

And at each act of intercourse they pronounce the barbarous name of one of the archons they themselves have invented, and then they utter what passes for a prayer, saying:

'I offer you to so-and-so, that you may offer me to so-and-so.'

And at the next act of intercourse he is instructed likewise to offer to another, so that that one too may offer to yet another.

And so it continues until he ascends — or rather, descends — through three hundred sixty-five falls of lechery, invoking at each one a certain name as he performs such an act.

And he begins again to go down through the same round, performing the same shameful acts and mocking the women he has deceived.

So when he has driven the total up to so great a heap — seven hundred thirty falls, I mean, of shameful acts of intercourse and of the names fabricated among them — then at last such a one dares to say:

'I am the Christ, since I have come down from above through the names of the three hundred sixty-five archons.'

And these, they say, are the names of the greater archons according to them — and they speak of many:

For they posit a fourth heaven, and a third, and yet another, a fifth heaven, in which they say Eloaios, also called Adonaios, resides.

And in the sixth, some of them say Ialdabaoth resides, others say Elilaios.

And they posit yet another, seventh heaven, in which they say Sabaoth resides;

but others say, no, rather it is Ialdabaoth who is in the seventh.

And in the eighth heaven, her who is called Barbelo, and the Father of all and Lord — who is himself his own father — and another Christ, self-begotten, and this same Christ who came down and showed mankind this knowledge, whom they also call Jesus;

and that he was not born of Mary, but was manifested through Mary;

and that he did not take on flesh, but was only an appearance.

And they say that Sabaoth has, according to some, the form of a donkey, and according to others, of a pig;

and for this reason, he says, he commanded the Jews not to eat pork.

And that he is the maker of heaven and earth, and of the heavens after him, and of his own angels.

And that the soul, as it departs from here, passes through these archons, and is unable to get through unless one has entered into the fullness of this knowledge — or rather, this ill-gotten knowledge — and, having been filled with it, escapes the hands of the archons and the powers.

And that the archon who holds fast this world is dragon-shaped, and swallows down the souls that have no part in this knowledge, and by means of his tail turns them back again into the world, here into pigs and other animals, and they are carried up again through the same means.

But if someone, he says, comes to be in this knowledge and gathers himself out of the world by means of the menses and by means of the flux of desire, he is no longer held fast here, but passes beyond the aforesaid archons.

And they say that he comes before Sabaoth and tramples upon his head, blaspheming with unbridled tongue, and thus passes beyond into the upper region, where the mother of the living is, Barbero, that is, Barbelo, and thus the soul is saved.

And these wretches also say that Sabaoth has hair like a woman's, supposing that the name 'Sabaoth' belongs to some archon, not knowing that wherever Scripture says, 'Thus says the Lord Sabaoth,' it does not speak the name of some person, but a name that gives glory to the Godhead.

For 'Sabaoth,' translated from the Hebrew tongue, means 'Lord of hosts.'

But these men, having gone utterly mad in every way against their own Master, seek after him who does not exist, and have lost him who does exist — or rather, they have destroyed themselves.

But there are yet other things among which it is grievous even to recount the particulars of their madness.

Some of them, professing not to approach women, corrupt themselves with their own hands, and take their own corruption into their hands and so eat it, misusing as a distorted testimony the words, 'These hands have ministered not only to me but also to those who are with me,' and again, 'working with your own hands, that you may be able to give also to those who have not.'

As I think it was concerning these very people that the Holy Spirit was moved to speak through the apostle Jude — I mean in the catholic epistle written by him; and this Jude is the one called the brother of James and of the Lord.

For the Holy Spirit, through the voice of Jude, pointed them out as beings like cattle, corrupted and corrupting, as he says: 'What things they do not know, in their ignorance they are ensnared; but what things they know by nature, like irrational animals, in these they are corrupted.'

For after the manner of dogs and pigs they carry out the corruption that comes from themselves;

for dogs and pigs — and indeed other animals as well — are corrupted in this way and eat the discharge that comes from their own bodies.

And indeed, truly dreaming, they defile the flesh, reject dominion, and blaspheme the glories.

But Michael the archangel, when disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you.'

But these men blaspheme by their very nature the things they do not understand, in that they blaspheme the holy things of holies that have been handed down to us with sanctification, turning them into a matter of shame.

And these are the very things they have dared to say against the apostles, as also the blessed Paul says: 'so that some dare, slandering us, to say that we teach, "Let us do evil, that good may come" — men whose condemnation is just.'

But how many other testimonies could I bring forward against these blasphemers? For these men who corrupt themselves with their own hands — and not only they, but also those who consort with women — thereafter, not having their fill of promiscuous intercourse with women, burn with lust for one another, men with men, receiving in themselves, as it is written, the due penalty of their error.

For these men, having become utterly ruined, congratulate one another, as though they had attained the most preeminent rank.

But they also deceive the female sex who are persuaded by them — women laden down with sins and led away by various desires — telling those they have deceived that so-and-so is a virgin, though she has been corrupted for so many years and is corrupted every single day.

For among them lust has no satiety, but the more shamefully a person acts among them, the more that person is praised.

And they say that those women are virgins who have never, according to the nature of ordinary custom, come to worldly union of marriage as far as the emission of seed, but who are always having intercourse and fornicating, yet before the pleasure reaches its completion, cause the man — the one who works corruption in their union — to withdraw, and take the aforesaid shameful matter for food, after the manner of the perverse conduct of Shelah toward Tamar; but they say these women have taken up this technique from the time of their virginity, of being corrupted, yet not receiving into themselves the union and effluence of the corruption.

And they blaspheme not only Abraham and Moses and Elijah and the whole company of the prophets, but also the God who chose them.

And countless other writings have been audaciously fabricated among them.

For they speak of a certain book, 'The Birth of Mary,' in which, inserting certain things, they set forth terrible and destructive matters.

For from this book, he says, Zachariah was killed in the temple, because, it says, he had seen a vision, and out of fear, wishing to tell of the vision, his mouth was stopped up.

Having, it says, the form of a donkey.

And when he came out, it says, and wished to say:

'Woe to you! Whom do you worship?' — the one who had appeared to him within the temple stopped up his mouth, so that he could not speak.

But when his mouth was opened so that he could speak, then he revealed it to them, and they killed him.

And thus, it says, Zachariah died.

For this reason, it says, the priest was commanded by the very lawgiver to wear bells, so that when he entered to perform the priestly service, the one who was worshiped, hearing the sound, might hide himself, lest the semblance of his form's face be discovered.

But the whole practice of their folly is easily refuted and full of mockery.

For if the one being worshiped were visible at all, he could not even have hidden himself;

but if he was able to hide himself at all, then he was not visible.

And again in another way one must say to them that if he was visible, then he was a body and no longer a spirit;

but if he was a spirit, he is no longer to be reckoned among visible things.

How then was that which is not reckoned among visible things perceived beforehand from the sound of the bells at the moment of its own withdrawal? For possessing invisibility according to nature, he would not have been seen, unless he had willed it.

But even if he did appear, he no longer appeared of necessity, as though nature led him to appear, but by grace, making his own manifestation clear not through fear and forewarning, but unexpectedly and without any sound.

And thus in every way their false and fabricated account has collapsed.

And there are many other foolish things which they say.

And yet Zacharias was not killed immediately, but even remained alive after the birth of John, and prophesied concerning both John and the coming and incarnate birth of the Lord from the holy virgin Mary through the Holy Spirit, as you too say: 'And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High;'

'For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom [of the just],' and so forth.

And how many other things could be said about their falsehood and their defilement?

Those among them called Levites do not have intercourse with women, but have intercourse with one another.

And these are supposedly the ones preferred and praised among them.

They then go on to mock those who practice a disciplined way of life, chastity, and virginity, as though they had undertaken their labor in vain.

And they bring forward, under the name of Philip the holy disciple, a fabricated gospel, in which it says: 'The Lord revealed to me what the soul must say as it ascends into heaven, and how it must answer each of the powers above:'

'I have known myself,' it says, 'and gathered myself together from every side, and I have not sown children for the ruler, but have uprooted his roots and gathered together the scattered members, and I know who you are.'

'For I,' it says, 'am of those from above.'

'And thus,' it says, 'she is released.'

'But if,' it says, 'she is found to have borne a son, she is held below until she is able to take back her own children, and to return to herself.'

And such are their foolish and fabulous tales, so that they even dare to blaspheme concerning the holy Elijah and say that when he was taken up, he was cast down again into the world.

'For,' it says, 'a female demon came and seized him and said to him: Where are you going? For I have children by you, and you cannot go up and leave your children here.'

'Whence do you have children by me, when I lived in purity?' he says, it is said.

'Yes,' it says, 'when, being visited often by dreams in the emission of your body, you were emptied out, I was the one who received the seed from you and bore you sons.'

Great is the folly of those who say such things. For how can a demon, being an invisible and incorporeal spirit, receive anything from bodies? But if it does receive from bodies and conceives, it is no longer spirit, but body.

But being a body, how is it invisible and spirit? Great indeed is the absurdity of their foolish talk.

He [Jude] goes on to add, in saying: 'Yet in like manner these dreamers defile the flesh, reject dominion, and blaspheme glories.'

But the blessed Jude, the brother of the Lord, was not speaking about those who dream in an ordinary bodily sense;